Eliza had been here before. The same darkness all around her. But this time she wasn't alone.
"Eliza, how do I move in this darkness? I can't see anything!"
"Here, grab my hand."
She led Rose through the place, noticing that her friend's limp was gone. The void did it's unexplainable magic.
"How do you know where to go?"
Eliza unconsiously hesistated on her next step at the unexpected question.
"I've been here before. When I blacked out after sending the demon goddess back to the Underworld, I arrived here in the same darkness."
The apprentice witch nodded, though not quite understanding. She shrugged it off and they continued walking.
After a few minutes they saw some light. Eliza remembered there being a table and two chairs here, but they were nowhere to be seen and instead it was a door they had come across. The tall, free standing door was made of a white stone, almost like marble, with a single lamp above. The soft glow illuminated the place and revealed an intricate carving on the door.
"That looks a bit like a phoenix, doesn't it?" Rose noted, pointing at the creature in the center of the white stone slab.
Eliza leaned in a bit closer. The carved bird looked like it was made of fire and craned its head up to the clouds pictured at the top of the door. At the bottom were two humanlike characters were depicted, holding up chalices to the phoenix. The chalices seemed to hold a flame.
"It does."
"What do you think is behind this door?"
She shook her head.
"I'm not quite sure. Last time there was no door."
Curious to know what was beyond, Rose looked for the handle, but found none.
"How do we even open this door anyway? There's no door handle."
Eliza frowned. Her friend was right. Then she looked at the carving again and an idea popped up.
"I think we should mimic the stances the two humans are in," she said while pointing at the bottom of the carved door, "There's a reason why they are depicted like that."
With a nod, Rose faced Eliza and held her hands up high, while her friend did the same. A minute went by, but nothing happened.
"Really?!"
"Hmm." Something was missing. Eliza stared at the carving again. After a few seconds, she said something Rose couldn't hear.
"What?"
"I said 'fire'. Fire is the solution."
"Huh? How are you so sure?"
"Look at what they are holding. We don't have the chalices, but we can create fire."
Rose pouted.
"You can. I've only being able to create light so far."
Eliza opened her hand, palm up, and created a sphere of light, just like she had taught the other girl. Then the light flickered a few times and turned into a yellow flame.
"Creating fire isn't as hard as you think," she explained, "All you have to do is to change the light's fuel source."
"To what? I know light feeds on my cells' electricity, but what do I do for fire?"
Closing her hand and extinguising the flame, Eliza walked up to Rose. She opened the girl's right hand.
"Fire feeds on electricity and fat. Start your light and then immagine you're adding your fats to it."
"Man, I barely got any!" Rose complained, "I'm gonna need to stock up!"
A chuckle escaped Eliza's mouth.
"Alright, focus. You got this, okay?"
Rose nodded and then started her light. Gathering the cells' electricity... imagining a sphere... then adding fat... The light started to flicker, just like Eliza's light had done, and turned a warm shade of orange. Then it changed into a real flame.
"You did it!"
A huge smile covered Rose's face.
"Now carefully bring your hands up into position and keep focussing on the flame."
Eliza stepped back and assumed her position facing her friend. Then she created her fire.
After a few seconds, the phoenix on the door started to glow. Slowly the rest of the stone came to light too and the door started to move. Light from behind crept in and illuminated the dark nothingess. When the stone slab was ajar far enough to comfortably open it, Eliza lowered her arms and let her flame die out. Rose followed suit. She pried open the door, just enough so they could slip through.
"This should do. Let's go."
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Kumiho stared into the pond in the center of her Japanese styled garden, the scene unfolding before her eyes intrigued her. It was a smart move to put a tracker on the jade fox charm. The water turned red, showing images of fire.
"Hm, she finally discovered the second mark's secret, didn't she?" The fox spirit murmured to herself.
Then the water turned black before returning to it's original state.
"Tsk! Stupid void!"
She stood up and turned away from the pond, her gown fluttering with the movement, and returned to her home. No matter how powerful she got by the years, the void would not let her pass. As she stepped onto the wooden patio around her house, a red fox came greeting her.
"Hey Aki," The fox spirit crouched down and petted her furry friend, "Shall we get inside? I'm in need of some coffee and you'll probably want some berries to snack on."
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